Hello folks,
for my new project, I’m looking for a smart way to detect a photographing smartphone or camera maybe 3 meters around my artwork.
Is there any known way on how to achieve that? One fallback possibility would be a camera, which has some smartphone/camera detection software (like face detection). But maybe there’s a nicer solution!
Do smartphones emit infra red light when focusing or something?
I’m thankful for any advice.
Kindest regards!
Check with Q department for the last gadget that they gave to 007.
Would you accept detecting any smartphone, camera or lens, disregarding whether it's engaged in the act of photography at the time? It's possible, but likely to be difficult.
Yes, looking for point emitters of infrared used for autofocus detection, or reflection of optics like you see in TV/Movies, could be hard. How distinguish from eyeglasses too?
Maybe a high speed scanner that pans an IR detector back & forth & vertically rapidly, or several of them looking at quadrants of the crowd.
MorganS:
Would you accept detecting any smartphone, camera or lens, disregarding whether it's engaged in the act of photography at the time? It's possible, but likely to be difficult.
I would.
How would you realise this?
I think by shining something and checking for reflections. Have to be something low power and at a frequency that is non-eye damaging if shone directly into an eye, or thru glasses or contacts. You might get reflections from jewelry, badges, belt or other buckles, buttons, certain clothing, etc,, so a lot of false detections. Visual confirmation would be best, machine recognition with a PC might be doable but seems like it would expensive.
If someone is taking pictures, someone would have to apprehend the picture taker, yes? Why not then just have that person scan the crowd visually?
Phone lens are fixed focus so no IR!. Even DSLRs do not use IR for focusing. There is on some an illuminator which is used in low light. But it is not IR.
Mark
Thank you for your ideas!
CrossRoads:
If someone is taking pictures, someone would have to apprehend the picture taker, yes? Why not then just have that person scan the crowd visually?
The thing is, my artwork needs to “detect” if someone is going to photograph it, so it can react to that act.
I'm sure I've seen somewhere a detector that was able to see lenses. I think it had a strong IR light source and it looked for reflections.
I think it would be very cool if the artwork did something as soon as you pointed a camera at it. False alarms would actually be helpful as then it would do its thing more often.
Aren't there gaze sensors for TV ratings data collection that are able to count how many people in the room are looking in the direction of the TV?
MorganS:
I think it would be very cool if the artwork did something as soon as you pointed a camera at it. False alarms would actually be helpful as then it would do its thing more often.
I think so, too. It’s going to be an artwork about metaphorical privacy (it’s a student project).
MorganS:
Aren't there gaze sensors for TV ratings data collection that are able to count how many people in the room are looking in the direction of the TV?
Maybe you can combine detecting a reflection plus a black rectangle or a typical pose you make when holding your smartphone/camera …
A Pixy camera could detect black rectangles. That would not be hard at all. Maybe that is all that is required here?
MorganS:
A Pixy camera could detect black rectangles. That would not be hard at all. Maybe that is all that is required here?
I can see why one would think a Pixy could do something like this but the Pixy is very picky about lighting. I personally don't think a Pixy could do something like this. Especially not black objects. I think shadows would cause havoc for the Pixy.
I haven't used the latest Pixy updates but back when I experimented with a Pixy I found its ability to find colored objects very underwhelming.
In my opinion this project is impossible, if you do get something to work you could sell it for a fortune to many of the worlds repressive governments.
Along the lines of G_M's comment above, if you are in the US or the UK, just contact the NSA or GCHQ and ask them if your cell phone camera is on -- they might already be looking through it.
jremington:
Along the lines of G_M's comment above, if you are in the US or the UK, just contact the NSA or GCHQ and ask them if your cell phone camera is on -- they might already be looking through it.
In Germany, actually. But nice idea. ; )
Maybe there are some more ideas? I would love to find an easy solution for this scenario. Hope it’s not really impossible, like G_M wrote …
What is the German equivalent of the NSA or GCHQ? Are they as intrusive?
I have heard on good authority that in the U.S., the NSA and their minions actually capture most, if not every packet that goes out on the internet.
It has been estimated that at least 2/3 of the disk usage on NSA servers consists of movies streamed by Netflix.